Posts by Alex Brown

About

Alex is a co host for Clear Admit's Wire Taps podcast. He has spent 30 years in the MBA admissions industry, and authored the book: Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions Alex also teaches digital marketing through executive education programs for London Business School, Imperial College Business School and Columbia Business School.

Published: June 12, 2022

Wire Taps 237—Strong international experience, is it enough? Government candidate from Canada. Military candidate with outstanding numbers

This week’s podcast kicks off with a discussion about updates for the new application cycle, as leading MBA programs have started releasing their new admissions deadlines and updated essays questions. Speaking of b-school essays, Graham reminded listeners of the upcoming MBA essay workshops – scheduled for July – signups are here: https://bit.ly/cambaessays. Alex then highlighted the MBA admissions book that Clear Admit offers, which suggests candidates begin with a “personal inventory” before tackling their individual applications and essays. Graham shared three Real Humans alumni pieces, including an INSEAD graduate working at Amazon, a Northwestern / Kellogg Read more

Published: June 5, 2022

Wire Taps 236—Central Asian candidate with manufacturing experience. Super numbers, going fast! First-gen female candidate, worried about the GMAT.

Alex and Graham are back with another episode of WireTaps, kicking off this week’s show with a discussion of the recent roll-out of several Clear Admit ‘essay topic analyses’ (which we prepare each season), as the likes of Tuck, Darden, HBS, CBS, and more have published their topics for 2022-23. Speaking of essays, Graham also announced the upcoming essay workshops, which run throughout the month of July and into August. The first workshop includes school representatives from Berkeley / Haas, Chicago / Booth, Dartmouth / Tuck, and Virginia / Darden. You can sign up here: https://bit.ly/cambaessays. Moving on from Read more

Published: May 29, 2022

Wire Taps 235—Promising MBA candidate, unknown additional activities. Unconventional candidate, with weaker numbers. 730 GMAT, should they retake?

Happy Memorial Day! This week’s podcast kicks off with some discussion of the latest wait list movements and anticipation of more activity over the next couple of weeks. Graham then discussed the Application Overview Workshops that have now concluded and previewed Clear Admit’s July webinar series, which will be focused on each MBA program’s essays. Graham also noted a special webinar event on June 8, focused on entering the management consulting field (signups are here: https://bit.ly/caconsultingjune). Graham then highlighted two ‘Real Humans Alumni’ pieces; a Cornell / Johnson graduate working as a Technical Account Manager for Google Read more

Published: May 22, 2022

Wire Taps 234—UK-based African immigrant focused on sustainability. France-based African immigrant debating whether to pursue the MBA. US-based Latina, going HBS or bust.

Alex and Graham began this 150th episode of Wire Taps by reviewing some of the show’s “greatest hits”. A huge thankyou to our listening audience for making this podcast a pleasure to produce, record, and share each week! Beyond the fanfare of a milestone episode, Alex highlighted more waitlist movement, and the anticipation of further activity in this area as Stanford and Chicago / Booth’s decision releases are due this upcoming week. Graham highlighted a new admissions tip which focuses on the role of supplemental course work (aka transcript repair); this includes a deep-dive look at HBS CORe and Read more

Published: May 15, 2022

Wire Taps 233—Asset management sales to top MBA? Lawyer to consultant, from New Zealand. Military pilot seeking product management role.

Alex and Graham kick off this week’s episode with some discussion around the waitlist movements they’ve observed over the last week on MBA LiveWire. It is becoming clear that MBA programs are going to their waitlists in good numbers, with likely more to come. Graham highlighted the most recently published Real Humans alumni pieces, including a Columbia graduate who has landed at Microsoft, and a Northwestern Kellogg grad who is now in a role with Amazon. Graham also discussed a new initiative we have launched, where we are seeking reviews regarding your experience with Clear Admit. We ask Read more

Published: May 8, 2022

Wire Taps 232—Cyber-security military officer, physics degree. Food scientist, seeking MBA to do good. Top numbers, underwhelming school selection

Graham and Alex are back for another Wire Taps episode as Round 3 decisions continue to roll out (this upcoming week includes UPenn / Wharton, Northwestern / Kellogg, Michigan / Ross and Berkeley / Haas). Your hosts discussed anticipation of significant movement on the wait lists over the next few weeks and Graham put Alex on the spot with a question about the application process. Graham then highlighted two Real Humans alumni pieces; the first a Ross graduate working as an Associate at McKinsey, and the second a Stanford graduate working on matters of energy transition and decarbonization Read more

Published: May 1, 2022

Wire Taps 231—China-based entrepreneur, with a 333 GRE. Greek candidate, sports background, no undergrad. Canadian engineer, maybe aim high.

This episode of the Clear Admit MBA podcast kicks off with Alex and Graham discussing the Round 3 decisions that are starting to roll out, noting how it’s a much shorter cycle than the prior rounds with rapid turnarounds. Graham then highlights several ‘Real Humans: Alumni’ pieces, including a CMU / Tepper graduate working at Google, a Cambridge / Judge alum who has landed with Microsoft, a recent INSEAD graduate who chose the Boston Consulting Group, a Cornell / Johnson alumna who also works for BCG, and a USC Marshall alum working Google. Graham also Read more

Published: April 24, 2022

Wire Taps 230—Enlisted military candidate with a subpar GPA. Military officer with a modest GRE score. Haas ($$) versus Wharton ($) and HBS for tech entrepreneurship.

This week’s episode of the podcast offers further details of Alex and Graham’s recent trip to London, followed by discussion of all the latest MBA admissions news. In particular, Alex noted this week’s application deadline for HBS’s 2+2 program. Graham also highlighted the recent ‘Real Humans: Alumni’ pieces, including a Columbia graduate working at Google, a NYU / Stern graduate who landed at Apple, a Chicago / Booth graduate working at Microsoft, and an HBS alum also at Microsoft. Graham then noted Clear Admit’s upcoming events schedule, with a series of Application Overview workshops slated Read more

Published: April 17, 2022

Wire Taps 229—Airline pilot seeking MBA. Top ORM candidate, needs to apply early. Darden versus Kenan Flagler ($), McCombs ($) and Simon ($).

This week, Graham and Alex tackle a variety of topics, from their meetup in London for a top-secret project to all the latest in MBA admissions news. Graham called attention to Clear Admit’s incentive program for top contributors on the platform and a survey we now have in the field and would really love you to complete; you can access it here: https://bit.ly/casurvey2022 (Amazon gift cards are available for some survey respondents). Graham also highlighted Real Humans Alumni pieces, including a Stanford graduate who works for Apple, a Northwestern / Kellogg graduate at Apollo Investment Corp. and Read more

Published: April 10, 2022

Wire Taps 228—Should we question a 730 GMAT?! Is 2 years of work experience enough? Anderson versus McCombs and Rice, for clean energy finance.

In the latest episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions podcast, Alex and Graham talk about getting together in London this week to work on a “top secret” project… (which actually means that if the project fails, no one will be the wiser!). Speaking of London, Graham highlighted the career report from London Business School; there are some very interesting differences in this career report, as compared with top U.S.-based programs. Graham also points listeners to the latest Real Humans alumni pieces; the first features a Michigan / Ross graduate who navigated from a pre-MBA career in retail Read more

Published: April 3, 2022

Wire Taps 227— History major, Marine, seeking pivot to investment banking. Health care candidate, targeting 750 on the GMAT. Kellogg versus Yale, is it a no-brainer?

This week’s episode of WireTaps kicks off with a discussion of the 2023 US News & World Report rankings for US-based MBA programs. For those of you who missed the results, Chicago / Booth shares the top spot with UPenn / Wharton, with Stanford and Kellogg tied for third, and Harvard and MIT Sloan tied for fifth. While advocating for more of a tiered ranking, Alex makes the case that rankings like US News do themselves harm when they place Harvard and Stanford outside the top two. After that discussion, Graham highlighted Real Humans Alumni pieces from a Read more

Published: March 27, 2022

Wire Taps 225—Great candidate, but is the GMAT high enough? Deferred admissions candidate, heading to Big Tech. Darden versus Ross, with waitlists to navigate

In this week’s edition of WireTaps, Alex and Graham discussed the wave of recent MBA admissions decisions from the likes of UPenn / Wharton and Northwestern / Kellogg, as well as the upcoming releases from Harvard and Stanford. As usual, there has been lots of activity on Live Wire. Graham then highlighted several Real Humans Alumni pieces, which included MBA alums who have made the move from Cambridge / Judge to Citibank, from HBS to Google and from Emory to Deloitte. Graham highlighted each of the tips these alums provided for incoming MBA students. Your hosts then Read more

Published: March 20, 2022

Wire Taps 223— Promising candidate needs solid GMAT score. Failed a class, is it fatal? “Dream School” Wharton versus Anderson with money

In this episode of Wire Taps, Alex and Graham discuss the upcoming Round 2 decision releases of Northwestern / Kellogg, Chicago / Booth and UPenn / Wharton among others, making the observation that with each successive week, bigger programs are releasing their decisions. Graham highlights two new Real Humans MBA Alumni pieces – one about an Insead graduate working at Bain and another about a Booth graduate who joined Disney. Graham also underlines the latest installments in the Top MBA Career Placement Outcomes series, focused on Strategy Consulting and Entrepreneurship and the Career Placement report for Texas / McCombs, which Read more

Published: March 13, 2022

Wire Taps 221—Military candidate with weaker numbers, entrepreneur with top GMAT, Columbia versus Sloan for Asset Management

In our latest installment of the Clear Admit MBA admissions podcast, Alex and Graham discussed the pending releases of admissions decisions for several programs in this upcoming week (Emory, UNC, Duke, Michigan, UVA, IESE), as well as last week’s release of CMU / Tepper decisions. Graham speculated that there will be significant movement off the Round 1 waitlists, forthcoming, due to the slump in application volume. We also discussed the release of additional articles in our new content series: Top MBA Career Placement Outcomes. We focused on the Finance sector piece, which is very revealing in terms of Read more

Published: March 6, 2022

Wire Taps 219—West African candidate and 700 GMAT, Test waiver for Round 3, Johnson Park Fellowship versus Columbia

In this episode of WireTaps, Graham and Alex discussed this week’s forthcoming release of admissions decisions for CMU / Tepper and INSEAD. Your hosts also highlighted our new content series: Top MBA Career Placement Outcomes. Two pieces published last week revealed interesting insights regarding regional placement within the U.S.. Graham and Alex then shifted gears to talk about two Real Humans Alumni pieces which focused on making the move from Northwestern / Kellogg to Google and from and Georgetown / McDonough to BCG. Graham also mentioned the recently published career report for USC / Read more

Published: January 20, 2019

Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview – Part I

Yale SOM has already released some Round 2 interview invites, according to MBA LiveWire. Michigan Ross released its first wave on Friday of last week. Harvard plans to release its invites in two waves, January 28 and January 31. the MBA admissions world is buzzing about one thing: INTERVIEWS. With so much interview anxiety in the air—and knowing that it only stands to build from here—we’ve decided to devote this week at Clear Admit to all things interview, introducing a series we ran during the last two admissions cycles. We’re getting the ball rolling with the first part Read more

Published: May 13, 2018

Admissions Tip: Time-Saving Tools for School Targeting

A critical key to success in the MBA admissions process is targeting the right MBA programs for application. When commencing the MBA admissions process, it can be difficult to immediately identify which programs might be most suitable and where you might be most competitive. A quick survey of MBA rankings may provide clues – and our own tiered ranking system provides additional guidance in terms of which programs are similar from a competitive standpoint – but beyond those basic resources, Clear Admit also has two unique tools to help you quickly arrive at your list of target MBA programs: MBA Read more

Published: May 6, 2018

Admissions Tip: Round 3 Results

With the MBA programs releasing their final round notifications in the upcoming weeks, the 2017-2018 admissions season is coming to a close for the vast majority of MBA aspirants. We’d like to offer our congratulations to all those who have gained admission to one of more of their target schools and wish good luck to waitlisted applicants whose fate is presently a bit less certain. For all those who submitted their applications in the final round and received an unfavorable decision, we’d like to share a few tips that we hope will make the process of facing rejection as productive Read more

Published: December 15, 2016

Admissions Tip: Planning for Round 2

Now that the bulk of Round 1 decisions are in, we wanted to take the time and look ahead to Round 2. The advice here is relevant for both Round 1 candidates who are considering additional applications in Round 2 as well as for those looking ahead to a later round. As most applicants are targeting multiple schools and still working to narrow down their school selection for Round 2, we wanted to take some time today to stress the importance of taking a deep breath and a step back in order to formulate a general timeline for the coming weeks. Establishing a set Read more

Published: November 2, 2016

MBA LiveWire Briefing: Wharton R1 Interviews and Rejections

Clear Admit’s MBA LiveWire continued its run of intense activity yesterday as the applicant focus shifted from MIT Sloan to UPenn / Wharton. Wharton released its Round 1 interview invites and rejections in the early afternoon, in less than 24 hours 129 candidates had posted their results on MBA LiveWire. For those curious about the HBS R1 interview invitation stage, check out MBA LiveWire briefing: HBS Round 1 Interview Decisions. And, for those interested in our analysis of Booth’s R1 interview stage, check out MBA LiveWire briefing: Chicago Booth Round 1 Interview Decisions. As always, with MBA LiveWire, Read more

Published: October 12, 2016

MBA LiveWire Briefing: HBS R1 Interviews, Rejections, Waitlists

As the Round 1 season has gotten underway, Clear Admit’s MBA LiveWire has been lighting up with entries from candidates reporting statuses as interview invites begin to roll out for many of the top MBA programs. A shower of red accompanied R1 LiveWire reports regarding HBS interview invitations In our first LiveWire Briefing this season, we wanted to take a look at some of the data from those who have received decisions in Harvard Business School (HBS)’s first round of admissions. As many of our readers know, yesterday marked a critical moment in Read more

Published: June 13, 2016

A Look at MBA DecisionWire Data for NYU Stern, Yale SOM, Cornell’s Johnson School

Welcome back for the sixth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. In this installment of our ongoing series, we’re exploring a New York/Metro-North theme by examining three schools in Read more

Published: May 30, 2016

MBA DecisionWire Data Analysis Examines Yields for HBS, Chicago Booth and Fuqua

Welcome back for the fifth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. Read more

Published: May 16, 2016

MBA DecisionWire Data Analysis Reveals Trends Among Stanford, Wharton, Booth Applicants

Welcome back for the fourth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire, a resource that allows candidates to share where they decide to attend business school based on the offers they receive. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. In the first two posts in this series, we dug into the MBA DecisionWire data to examine popular school pairings—that is, pairs of schools where applicants who apply to one often also apply to the other. In the first, we looked at the following pairings: Stanford and Berkeley Haas, Columbia and NYU Stern, and Wharton and Chicago Booth. In the second, we examined overlap between Michigan’s Ross School and Duke’s Fuqua School, Chicago Booth and Kellogg, and Stanford and Harvard. Read more

Published: May 2, 2016

MBA DecisionWire Data Analysis Reveals Trends Among Harvard, Tuck, Anderson Applicants

Welcome back for the third in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. In this, its inaugural season, the rate of entries is ramping up as students make their final choices for the next academic year. In the first two posts in this series, we dug into the MBA DecisionWire data to examine popular school pairings—that is, pairs of schools in which applicants who applied Read more

MBA Livewire

November 21, 2024 10:36am ET

Accepted to Cornell / Johnson

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 21, 2024

GPA: 3.5

GMAT: 760

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: United States

November 21, 2024 4:51am ET

Waitlisted at NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on November 19, 2024

GPA: 3.54

GRE: 331

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Nicaragua

Note:

Waitlisted without interview. How can I flip this in my favour?

November 21, 2024 3:13am ET

Accepted to Washington U. / Olin

Round: Round 1

Received via email November 20, 2024

GPA: 3.81

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: Los Angeles

Note:

100K scholarship!

November 20, 2024 11:49pm ET

Interview Invite to Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 1

Received via email November 20, 2024

GMAT: 645

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Note:

Consortium

November 20, 2024 9:20pm ET

Interview Invite to Dartmouth / Tuck

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on September 04, 2024

GPA: 3.74

GRE: 311

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Tampa, FL

Note:

Applied early enough to guarantee interview.

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